Pentiment is a 2022 adventure role-playing game created by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Xbox Game Studios. Players must investigate the murders of important people, as other townspeople have been accused for various reasons. The game was available on Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on November 15, 2022. Versions for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 were released on February 22, 2024. Critics gave the game positive reviews, and it received a Peabody Award in 2023.
Gameplay
Pentiment is a narrative adventure role-playing video game that is played from a 2D perspective. The player controls Andreas Maler, a traveling painter from Nuremberg who becomes involved in a series of murder mysteries in Upper Bavaria. The story takes place in the fictional Alpine town of Tassing and the nearby Benedictine Kiersau Abbey during the 16th century. The events of the game span a period of 25 years.
The player’s goal is to investigate the murders of important individuals, for which other townspeople have been accused for various reasons. By collecting physical evidence and learning information from townsfolk, the player must decide who to accuse—either based on who they believe committed the crime or who they think deserves punishment. At the same time, the game includes other crimes, secret plans, and details about the area’s history. Throughout the game, players can also shape Andreas’s personal background through dialogue choices. These choices reveal information about his past travels, language skills, and education, which can influence how the mysteries are solved.
Plot
In 1518, Andreas Maler is learning to be an illuminator at Kiersau Abbey near Tassing. Baron Lorenz Rothvogel, a friend of the Prince-Bishop of Freising and a long-time supporter of Kiersau, visits to check on a manuscript he had ordered. Dissatisfied with the work of the elderly Brother Piero, the baron demands that Andreas complete the remaining illustrations. The next day, the baron is found stabbed. To protect the abbey’s reputation, Abbot Gernot accuses Brother Piero of the crime and has him held until an investigation can be conducted. Andreas believes Brother Piero is innocent and begins his own investigation. He finds that several townspeople had reasons to kill the baron, and each received mysterious notes encouraging them to attack him. Andreas presents his findings to the archdeacon, and one of the suspects is executed.
In 1525, Andreas returns to Tassing to find the town nearly in revolt against the abbot’s heavy taxes, inspired by the Twelve Articles. The leader of the rebellion, Otto, is found dead, and the townspeople blame the abbot for the murder, threatening to attack the abbey. Andreas investigates and discovers that several townspeople received the same mysterious notes he had found seven years earlier, all urging them to kill Otto. He accuses one of the suspects, who flees to a mill and is killed when the townspeople burn it down. The townspeople then set fire to the abbey and its library. Andreas enters the flames to save the books and is presumed dead. The Duke of Bavaria’s soldiers arrive to restore order, killing many townspeople in the process.
In 1543, the player controls Magdalene, a young printer and artist. The town council hires her father, Claus, to paint a mural showing Tassing’s history, but Claus is injured by an unknown attacker and becomes bedridden. Magdalene takes over his work and uncovers the town’s controversial past. She also learns that Andreas survived the fire and lived as a hermit in the ruins of the abbey for twenty years. Together, they discover a Roman temple beneath the town’s church and learn that the town’s priest, Thomas, was responsible for the earlier events. Thomas wanted to hide the fact that the town’s patron saints were actually based on the Roman gods Mars and Diana. He orchestrated the murders and the attack on Claus, then collapsed the temple to prevent its discovery, killing himself in the process. Andreas and Magdalene escape, and Magdalene decides to finish the mural. Claus eventually dies from his injuries, and Magdalene chooses to leave Tassing for Prague, while Andreas remains in the town to begin a new life.
Development and release
Game developer Josh Sawyer, who has a degree in history from Lawrence University and studied the Holy Roman Empire, had always wanted to create a historical game. In the 1990s, he proposed the idea for what would become Pentiment to Feargus Urquhart, while both worked at Black Isle Studios. He was inspired by the historical fiction of Darklands, a 1992 role-playing video game by MicroProse that combined the Middle Ages with supernatural themes. Urquhart believed the idea would not interest many people outside of history fans, and the project did not happen. Years later, when Sawyer and Urquhart reunited at Obsidian Entertainment, Sawyer revived the concept after the 2018 release of Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. He changed the game’s focus to a narrative adventure with mystery elements and gameplay similar to Night in the Woods, Mutazione, and Oxenfree. Urquhart agreed, and a small team was formed to match the game’s limited appeal. Sawyer and art director Hannah Kennedy began as the initial team of two; later, the team grew to 13 people.
Sawyer chose to set the game in the 16th century, a time of major changes that included the start of the Reformation, the German Peasants’ War, and the rise of Copernican heliocentrism. He cited The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, a book set in a monastery, as the main inspiration for Pentiment’s physical setting. The character Andreas Maler was partly inspired by Albrecht Dürer, who also came from Nuremberg. According to Kennedy, Dürer’s role as a pioneer of self-portraits connected to the game’s main theme: the artist’s journey of self-discovery.
The game’s art style blends late medieval manuscripts, early print, and woodcuts from the transition between late medieval and early modern art. Sawyer said Kennedy’s artistic style and interest in the concept were key to gaining early support for the project. The team studied the Nuremberg Chronicle, as well as illuminated medieval manuscripts at the Getty Museum and Huntington Library for inspiration. Manuscript expert Christopher de Hamel, Lawrence University professor Edmund Kern, and Winston E. Black of St. Francis Xavier University served as historical consultants for the game.
The music for the game was composed and performed by Alkemie Early Music Ensemble. Game director Josh Sawyer said, “Alkemie is a music group that composes and records together… the music they created for the game is either strictly historical or inspired by history.” Kristin Hayter (as Lingua Ignota) also composed the song “Ein Traum” for the game.
Microsoft’s purchase of Obsidian in 2018 helped make the game more accessible, adding features like easier-to-read typefaces, text-to-speech tools, and translations for non-English speakers in a text-heavy game.
Obsidian Entertainment officially announced Pentiment in June 2022 at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase. The game was released for Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on November 15, 2022. Versions for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 were released on February 22, 2024.
In 2025, Pentiment was among several games affected by a security problem in the Unity engine. The game was temporarily removed from digital stores from October 3 to October 7, 2025, to fix the issue.
Reception
Pentiment received "mostly positive" reviews from critics, according to the Metacritic website.
IGN praised a gameplay feature that creates urgency, saying it made the game more exciting and encouraged players to replay it: "you're never given enough time to explore all options. This added tension and made me make many important choices." Destructoid highlighted that there is no "single best path" in the game, as every decision has both advantages and disadvantages. GamesRadar+ appreciated the game's setting, noting it reflected the anxiety of a changing time: "the start of a new era feels clear, and the struggle to adapt is shown through details like monks copying books or young people learning to question authority." While criticizing a confusing decision-making system, PC Gamer enjoyed the characters in the town and their roles in the story: "over 25 years of interactions, meals, and conversations make it harder to decide whether to blame someone for a crime they may not have committed."
The Guardian praised the game's writing, saying "the dialogue includes interesting historical details, supported by a glossary that explains terms." PCGamesN disliked the game's pacing, calling it "as slow as moving tectonic plates." Polygon praised the art style, saying the drawings "add visual style to a story that could otherwise feel dull."